It’s nice to receive presents at Christmas and this year I was given two beautiful books and will write about them over the next day or so. However, I also bought two as gifts to myself, one on Central Africa about which I also plan to write, and one on birds.
Living by the Solway on the West Cumbrian coast shorebirds, or waders as we more often call them in Britain, probably (though I haven’t counted) account for well over half of my photographs. I find them fascinating, hence this little self-indulgence at a time when I’m supposed to be reducing my library, not enlarging it.
On my shelves there are already several books on waders, including Vol. III of “Birds of the Western Palearctic” which I recently got cheap-but-very-good secondhand. That, however, is pretty technical and I felt like something easier to read rather than simply to refer to with obscure questions. Richard Chandler’s new book serves that purpose very well. I’m half way into it and when I reach the end might well write a more comprehensive review than I have time for just now. For the present let me simply say that I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The purchase was not a mistake.
